Oppenheimer Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Stock

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had its target price boosted by research analysts at Oppenheimer from $215.00 to $225.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective points to a potential upside of 11.72% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Pivotal Research upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $187.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alphabet presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.80.

Alphabet Stock Performance

Shares of GOOG stock traded up $4.21 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $201.39. The company had a trading volume of 7,083,345 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,773,088. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $189.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.35. Alphabet has a one year low of $131.55 and a one year high of $203.84. The firm has a market cap of $2.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $88.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.39 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 31.66%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.55 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Alphabet will post 8.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,834 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.32, for a total transaction of $550,702.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,468,029.04. The trade was a 13.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.36, for a total transaction of $3,990,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,084,306 shares in the company, valued at $369,672,512.16. This trade represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 122,887 shares of company stock valued at $22,470,464 over the last 90 days. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 5.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 114,802,133 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,193,768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,655,022 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,557,486 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,247,208,000 after acquiring an additional 259,213 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 33,334,082 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,573,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113,395 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Alphabet by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,424,324 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,578,793,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,024,276 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,843,149,000 after acquiring an additional 264,962 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.